It is common practice to load articles in stacks on a pallet and also unload stacked articles on pallets. The pallets are commonly lifted and transferred from a loading point to a vehicle or may be transferred from a vehicle to an unloading point. Pallet loading and unloading is commonly done manually where each palletized article is lifted from or placed on a pallet from heights varying from just above floor level, i.e. the height of the pallet, to a height which requires substantial upper body strength to manage. This requires repetitive bending over of the person loading a pallet and also lifting above waist level as the stack of articles grows in height. The reverse motions occur as a pallet is unloaded. This is true even though the article is lifted from a conveyor or deposited on a conveyor. In many environments articles to be loaded may be presented by a conveyor at a comfortable height for lifting, but the loading person must initially bend over to deposit articles on a pallet and then lift substantially above waist level as the stack of articles on the pallet increases in height. The reverse is true when unloading from a pallet to a conveyor. Additionally, where plural stacks are to be loaded on or unloaded from a pallet the loader or unloader must move around the pallet to reach all of the stacks.
These manual lifting and depositing operations place severe strains on a person's back, and it is not unusual to lead to back injuries and long term disability.
Additionally, continuous stooping and lifting as well as high lifting and unloading can be very fatiguing and leads to slowing of loading/unloading efforts.
The present invention provides a new and improved apparatus for facilitating the loading and unloading of stacks of articles on a pallet where the person always has the top article on a pallet presented at a comfortable removal height. Similarly, the invention permits the loading of stacks of articles always at a comfortable height, which may be also referred to as an ergonomic height, even as the height of the stack increases. Moreover, the invention permits the pallet to be rotated to facilitate access to plural stacks of articles thereon.
An object of this invention is to provide a new and improved apparatus for loading articles on a pallet and also to present articles for unloading, from a pallet, at an ergonomic height.
Another object of this invention is to provide such an apparatus which is easily rotatable to present one of a plurality of stacks of articles on a pallet to an unloader at a comfortable height and location, and at a predetermined loading or unloading point.
Another object of this invention is to provide such an apparatus which a pallet loader/unloader may easily and safely manipulate for height and angular position.
A further object of this invention is to provide a new and improved apparatus to facilitate rotation of a table bearing a pallet with plural stacks of articles and also vertically adjust the table to present the top article of a stack at an ergonomic height.